Consumer Reports’ most reliable brand is Honda, followed by Acura. No big surprise there. It is well-known that Honda makes great cars, so I won’t disagree with Consumer Reports on this one. A few brands seem out of place, like Buick rolling in at 10th.
Here is a quick summary of the top 10 most reliable brands.
- Honda
- Acura
- Scion
- Subaru
- Toyota
- Lexus
- Infiniti
- Mitsubishi
- Porsche
- Buick
Buick sticks out like a sore thumb here. Considering Buick is a GM, that’s some serious reliability there.
So who are the bottom-feeders of the list?
- Land Rover
- Hummer
- Cadillac
- Mercedes Benz
- Pontiac
- Volkswagen
- Chevrolet
- Jeep
- GMC
- Suzuki
What I find surprising is how GM has 50% of the crappiest brands out there. OUCH! I take back what I said about GM not making crappy cars. What is interesting to see is that only one Japanese automaker on the 10 worst list is Suzuki, which also happens to be 10th worst (not exactly bad if you ask me). We also see only 2 Germans and the rest are all American. That’s 70% of the of that list. Pretty sad.
Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean ALL cars of that brand are bad, the CR report gives you a visual range of how good/bad this brands models are. For example, Pontiac has the widest range of good-to-bad models of any manufacturer, with the Solstice being pure garbage and the Vibe being their best model (It’s no coincidence since the Vibe is the Toyota Matrix’s cousin).
CR brand reliability report [PDF]
Your thoughts?
My Take: This is the first Suzuki post I have ever made (and could possibly be the last if their sales don’t pick up) regarding their lease rates. The Kizashi is not a bad looking sports sedan, but I think Suzuki’s distribution channel (and their lack of notoriety) really hurts. The numbers for this sedan are so-so, but it’s a good choice if you are looking to buy out the car at lease-end since the residual is relatively low.